Books made with our homemade paper

Today we used our homemade paper from last week to make covers for little books. Levi's comment when we were done was, "It's like making the paper, it's so fun I don't want to stop." He completed 3 books. I made six, four to give to my friends at my book club, one for myself and one more to give away.

We used these directions for 5-stitch bookbinding from Zum Gali Gali Rubber Stamps. We first learned to make these little books a few years ago at the local Asian Festival. It was so fun that I came home and made lots more books. I made them for place cards for dinner on Chinese New Year, I gave them away, and I carried them in my purse to jot notes on.

Our paper measured about 5.5 x 8.5, so we used one sheet to make the front and back covers of our larger books. For the smaller books we cut (or tore) our paper into four sections and made 2 smaller books. The smaller books are perfect for keeping in a purse to jot notes to oneself. When Levi was smaller I kept one in my purse so that if he said something cute while we were out and about I could just record it in my booklet, knowing that if I didn't jot it down I would probably forget it or get it all jumbled up. It's fun to look back at the little notes I've written.

Levi's books

The red flecks in the orange paper are scraps of red napkins.
The dark purple flecks in the blue paper are also napkins, the yellow flecks are dried flower petals and the sparkles come from glitter added to the mix.

mini books for my friends at book club

The white stitching is done with dental floss, and the brown
stitching is done with linen thread.

mini book for me

These are lots of fun to make and not too hard if you read the entire instructions.

Sharon